Quaker Oats Company

The Quaker Oats Company
Quaker
Company typeSubsidiary
NYSE: OAT (until 2001)
IndustryFood
FoundedSeptember 4, 1877; 147 years ago (1877-09-04) (as Quaker Mill Company)
Ravenna, Ohio, United States
FounderHenry Parsons Crowell
Headquarters555 West Monroe Street, ,
US
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Robbert Rietbroek (Senior Vice President & General Manager)
Products
  • Oats
  • Oatmeal (Porridge)
  • Cereal
  • Snacks
ParentPepsiCo
SubsidiariesGatorade
Websitequakeroats.com

The Quaker Oats Company (/ˈkwkər ts/), known as Quaker, is an American food conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois. As Quaker Mill Company, the company was founded in 1877 in Ravenna, Ohio. In 1881, Henry Crowell bought the company and launched a national advertising campaign for Quaker Oats.

In 1911, the company acquired the Great Western Cereal Company. The iconic cylindrical package was introduced in 1915. Although Quaker Oats Company states that the "Quaker man" is not meant to resemble or represent an actual person, the company identified the Quaker man as William Penn in advertising dating back to 1909.

In 1983, Quaker acquired Stokely-Van Camp, Inc., the maker of Van Camp's and Gatorade. In 2001, PepsiCo bought Quaker Oats for $14 billion, primarily to acquire the Gatorade brand.[1]

  1. ^ Matthew Herper and Betsy Schiffman (2 August 2001). "Pepsi Bought Quaker. Now What?". Forbes. Retrieved 21 January 2011.